Job Description

Head of Commercial Excellence & Commercial Operations

Svitzer offers an exciting opportunity to lead and shape how we strengthen our commercial capabilities, customer relationships and commercial ways of working across a global organisation with ambitious growth plans.

As Head of Commercial Excellence, Key Account Management & Commercial Operations, you will have a broad mandate spanning both the strategic and operational dimensions of our commercial agenda. You will help ensure that Svitzer has the capabilities, processes, tools and customer approaches needed to create value and deliver profitable growth.

Reporting directly to the Chief Commercial Officer, you will work closely with the Global Commercial Team, regional leaders and colleagues across Operations, Finance, Strategy, Communications and People & Culture. The role includes leadership responsibility for the Commercial Operations team in Copenhagen and Mumbai, including Commercial Process Specialists and the team leader based in Mumbai.

About Svitzer

Svitzer is a leading global towage operator with 4,000+ colleagues and a fleet of 510 tugboats across 35+ countries, organised into four regions: Australia, AMEA, Europe and Americas.

We provide sustainable marine services that make ports and terminals safer, more efficient and more climate friendly.

Svitzer is pursuing ambitious growth, supported by strong operational expertise, long-standing customer relationships and a clear focus on creating value for our customers. To succeed, we are strengthening our commercial capabilities and ways of working across the company.

The team you will join

Based in our Copenhagen office and reporting directly to the Chief Commercial Officer, you will join the Global Commercial Team.

The team works across Svitzer’s regions and markets to support growth, strengthen customer relationships and develop the commercial capabilities needed to deliver our strategy. The team includes Commercial Excellence and Key Account Management, Commercial Operations and CO2, Business Development and Commercial Innovation.

You will lead an international team across Copenhagen and Mumbai and work closely with regional and local commercial teams around the world. You will also collaborate extensively with colleagues in Operations, Finance, Strategy and other Global Functions.

The Global Commercial Team is collaborative, internationally oriented and ambitious. We work across functions and geographies, challenge each other constructively and aim to turn strategic priorities into practical outcomes for the business and our customers.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will:

• Lead the integrated Commercial Excellence, Key Account Management and Commercial Operations agenda across Svitzer.

• Develop and implement a clear approach to strategic account management, ensuring a sustainable business development pipeline across our key client accounts

• Strengthen commercial capabilities, processes, tools and governance across our four regions.

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of commercial processes, systems, data and ways of working.

• Own our OTC process, supporting our Commercial Operations team in Copenhagen and Mumbai, developing and enabling the team

• Establish clear frameworks for commercial planning, customer segmentation and performance management.

• Support the development of value propositions and commercial approaches that reflect customer needs and Svitzer’s strategic priorities.

• Drive the use of data, insights and commercial performance measures to improve decision-making and commercial outcomes.

• Partner with regional and local commercial teams to embed global standards while ensuring relevance to local markets and customer relationships.

• Enable knowledge-sharing and collaboration across Svitzer’s regions and markets.

• Identify opportunities to simplify and improve commercial ways of working, ensuring that processes support rather than hinder customer focus and growth.

• Act as a trusted strategic partner to the CCO and senior stakeholders across the organisation.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for an experienced commercial leader with a strong understanding of commercial excellence, strategic account management and commercial operations in an international and complex organisation.

You combine strategic thinking with a strong ability to translate ideas into practical results. You are comfortable working across functions, regions and cultures, and you know how to build alignment without relying solely on formal authority.

In particular, we are looking for someone who brings:

• Strong business acumen and the ability to connect customer needs with commercial and financial outcomes.

• Experience in commercial excellence, strategic account management and business development, commercial operations or a related field.

• Strong understanding of how to build and execute commercial strategies that support profitable growth.

• Great stakeholder-management and influencing skills, including at senior leadership level.

• A pragmatic and collaborative approach, with the ability to turn complexity into clarity.

• Demonstrated ability to build strong and sustainable relationships with strategic customers.

• Experience working across regions, markets and different customer segments.

• Experience leading and developing international and potentially geographically dispersed teams.

• Strong communication and presentation skills.

• Fluency in English.

How To Apply

To ensure a consistent and fair recruitment process, please submit your application via the “Apply” button on our Svitzer Careers page. Applications submitted outside the system cannot be considered.

Deadline

The application deadline is 10th September 2026 We review applications on an ongoing basis and may close the job advertisement earlier if we receive a strong field of qualified candidates.

Questions

To ensure a fair and consistent experience for all candidates, we are not able to respond to questions in advance of interviews. Relevant questions can be addressed during the interview process.

Building a Diverse Workplace

In Svitzer we value the diversity of our talent and will always strive to recruit the best person for the job – we value diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to gender, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a genuine source of strength for building high performing teams.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that members from some under-represented groups are less likely to apply for jobs if they don’t meet every single qualification. At Svitzer we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles, and we are excited about hearing from you!

How to Apply

To apply for this role, please click on the 'Apply Now' button and create a Candidate Home to manage your applications.